The Brutal Consequences of Unchecked Power

from Human Rights First

For brazen disregard of minimal standards of human decency few things match the Russian government’s vindictive treatment of Vasily Alexanyan, a former vice-president of the Yukos energy conglomerate, currently in prison awaiting trial for alleged money laundering, dying from AIDS. The authorities have been refusing to provide him with the essential life saving medication he needs to treat his illness in an apparent effort to force him to testify against his former Yukos colleagues.

Alexanyan contracted tuberculosis while in prison and has lost his sight. The European Court of Human Rights has repeatedly called on the Russian authorities to allow him to receive the treatment he needs in a properly equipped medical clinic.

At the end of January, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, the jailed former Yukos head, declared a hunger strike to protest the denial of treatment to Alexanyan. Khodorkovsky began his hunger strike after being told of Alexanyan's testimony before the Supreme Court, in which he stated that his interrogators said that he would not receive medical attention unless he agreed to provide evidence against Khodorkovsky and others of his Yukos colleagues.

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